I don’t know quite what I was expecting when I requested to read this book but reading the first page I was swiftly unprepared but not unpleasantly so.

My summer has been a harsh one full of sadness and death with the recent passing of my grandmother so I didn’t think I would be able to finish this book since everything is so raw but Mr. Prower’s charm and wit had me laughing out loud at several instances. The burial and funeral practices shared around the world are fascinating. This was a good, quick read . Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my Arc. Please visit my blog for more reviews like this.

Published on: Flying the Hedge (blog) www.flyingthehedge.com
Run Date: 7/17/19
Link: https://www.flyingthehedge.com/2019/07/book-review-morbid-magic-death.html
Review Below:
"I just finished reading Morbid Magic: Death Spirituality and Culture from Around the World by Tomás Prower (release date September 8, 2019) and I have to say I am thoroughly intrigued. The book is a world tour of death rituals and rites around the world, with each section focusing on a specific location on Earth, from the Middle East to the Americas. Each section gives a brief snippet of how each culture views death and handles funerals, a brief description of the deities associated with death, a death-related takeaway, and finishes with experiences from those practicing within those cultures. There is not a lot of magic in this book, which was disappointing, but learning about how other cultures handle and view death and funeral rites was fascinating to me. You see, my ex-husband was a funeral director. Through him, I developed an interesting view of death and funeral rites because I was exposed to things daily that most other people experience very little throughout their life, especially if you live in a country that hides death away like we do in the US. Now he obviously spent more time with death than I did, but it was an important part of our life and through him, I realized that death isn't something to be feared, but honored and celebrated. I work with spirits all the time and accepting death as an inevitability and as something that shouldn't be feared but instead honored is important to my practice. I was overjoyed to read the story of one of his friends who mentioned how seeing death transformed her practice regarding spirits and mediumship. I strongly related to her story and felt confirmed in my belief that my experiences with the funeral industry in the United States made me a better practitioner. I loved reading the experiences of others with death. It was one of my favorite parts of the book. It gave me a better understanding of multiple cultures, including Islam and Judaism. My ex-husband started in the funeral industry at a Jewish funeral home, so I was accustomed to Jewish practices but reading a woman's story of how her community came forth to help her filled me with such comfort and joy. It made me appreciate our diverse cultures and religions and how we all must die, no matter our religious or political affiliations; that we are all just humans.

Apart from the personal stories, I really loved the takeaways from each culture. These takeaways were things Prower, who also works in the funeral industry, suggests we do regarding death and funeral rites. Some of these are practical yet difficult things, like writing a will and having it notarized. Being with a funeral director for over 6 years, I can't tell you how many times I heard about the bickering of family members and the living going against the wishes of the deceased because they thought they knew better than the dead. It is so important you have a funeral plan written and notarized now. Death can come at any time, which is another takeaway. Decide what you want to be done with your belongings, what funeral rites you want, take out a life insurance policy, and if you can, go ahead and prepay for your funeral that way you get exactly what you want and your family isn't burdened with trying to figure it all out! I can't tell you how many times families couldn't pay for funerals and had to create GoFundMe accounts. Death is inevitable; the least you can do is make it easier on your family. Other takeaways were more spiritual in nature, such as honoring our ancestors. Because of my background, I think the takeaways were the best part of the book and readers need to hear that they need to take care of this stuff now. Don't wait until its too late.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but there were some disappointments. First, Prower completely glosses over African traditions. He prefaces this by saying there are too many cultures to cover thoroughly, but then attempts to lump all the African cultures together by saying "This is what they have in common." I felt African traditions were done dirty in this book. I was most interested in reading about their practices too, although his section on Voodoo and Hoodoo was interesting, albeit short. He is much more careful with Native American cultures. Despite saying there are way too many to cover, he doesn't lump any groups together. There are also some discrepancies with the deities and their representations in this book. I'm no expert on all cultures and their deities, but I know a few well enough to spot inaccuracies. The first is Inanna. He completely dismisses her as the Queen of Heaven and fails to include some crucial aspects of her myth, citing modern anthropologists as the reason. I'd never seen her represented the way Prower represented her and without a good source, I can't confirm this interpretation. However, other sections have great sources so I felt let down in this regard. Lilith's story was also a little strange with the mentioning of amulets being worn by pregnant women and newborns without an explanation of why this tradition arose. Why include it at all if you aren't going to explain the meaning behind it, which has to do with death! The lumping of many European cultures under the heading "Viking" was also a little disheartening, but at this point, I've gotten so used to this cultural misrepresentation that I just let it go (Viking refers to a number of raiding parties with different cultural backgrounds).

Again, I enjoyed the book because of my background, but I wouldn't say this book is really "morbid magic." There is very little magic in the book at all, apart from a ritual found in the first section. It's mostly a retelling of death and funeral practices around the world, so if you are looking for spells and rituals regarding death, this probably isn't the best place to start. Now if you are looking to get a brief overview of death culture around the world, then go right ahead. Honestly, I feel there are better, more reliable sources out there, but Prower's lighthearted writing makes this a fun, easy weekend read."

I was very excited about this as I teach a Dark Tourism course and my students are always interested in reading more about Death culture. Reading this felt more like reading tidbits. It also began in an odd way with a story about a man participating in magic and that leading him to suicide. I understand the seriousness of the subject but felt it was treated a bit too lightly for my taste.

Being a big fan of Prower's earlier book Queer Magic, I jumped at the chance to get an early read of another work of his. That might have been a bit of a mistake on my part, although a lot of that was simply that death magic isn't my area of expertise or interest - not the book's fault!

That said, Morbid Magic did make me uncomfortable, not because of the subject matter but because of how it was handled. The book is essentially a brief summary of (some of) the mortuary rituals and afterlives of various cultures, singling out a few deities from each for a slightly more in-depth description. Honestly, my alarm bells started ringing when the Sumerian goddess Inanna, in the book's first section, was described as 'a self-serving and self-centered woman deserving no praise'. I'm not a professor, but I *have* studied Inanna for years, and not only is that an interpretation I have never come across (this is allegedly the take of 'modern anthropologists'), it's incredibly dismissive and trivialising towards a goddess known as the Queen of Heaven. Morbid Magic frames the legend of Inanna's Descent [to the Underworld] as an Aesop's fable-esque tale to explain injustice - which it doesn't really do - and completely ignores the role of Tammuz and how that, second part of the myth acts as a Persephone-like explanation for the 'death' of the seasons. It's the most bizarre reading I've ever come across. Another passage on Lilith is pretty strange as well, excising some of the most consistent aspects of her myth - the book mentions the amulets that kept her away from pregnant women and newborns, but seems to suggest the practice came out of nowhere, rather than being a fundamental part of her Jewish origin story (her interactions with the angels sent to retrieve her after she fled Eden).

Myths are myths, though, and everyone knows a different version; the weirdness about Inanna and Lilith didn't make me happy, but I was willing to overlook it. The colloquial voice Prower uses in this writing is, I think, deliberate - normalising death seems to be part of the book's mission, although I didn't see that explicitly stated in the introduction, only implied - but it's jarring considering the subject matter. Possibly Morbid Magic just isn't intended for those who don't already have a comfortable relationship with death or death magic, but considering Prower's (longer than usual) section on how much people crave their deceased love ones be treated with dignity and respect, those are two traits that seem to be lacking throughout the text. The 'rundown' on the death rituals of each culture felt like exactly that - a bare-bones (if you'll excuse the pun) laundry list of facts that would have worked nearly as well in bullet-point form, with little to no context given to explain the views and rituals of different cultures. Meaning that, while Prower doesn't offer any personal judgement on said rituals, he definitely sets up several to be tabloid-shocking to the average Western reader - the use of the term 'sex slaves' while discussing the Vikings stands out unpleasantly in my memory.

The Vikings are actually a good example of what ended up being my major issue with this book, which is that Prower lumps together waaaay too many different cultures under single umbrellas. The Vikings, for example, weren't a single coherent people - 'viking' isn't even a noun, it's a *verb*, so speaking of 'Vikings' really only refers to the raiding parties rather than the cultures those raiders came from. Far worse is how 'Sub-Saharan Africa' is treated as one culture! Which is especially bizarre considering that Prower acknowledges, in his introduction of that section, that that's far from the actual case. Morbid Magic states that there's just too many native traditions and beliefs [about death] in Africa to go over them all, 'so, instead, what I'll do is take you on a tour of a *general* body handling and funeral traditions that are applicable throughout a good majority of cultures on the continent'. I don't know if there was any way to do that well, but the sheer amount of generalisation Prower does made me incredibly uncomfortable. Statements like 'deceased ancestors in Sub-Saharan Africa take on the role of protectors of the family' are offered without naming tribes, kingdoms, or even *countries* as sources. Zambia and the Xhosa in South Africa both receive (very, *very*) brief paragraphs that go into a little more detail, but it's too little, too late.

Prower treads more carefully when he comes to Native Americans, but opens the section by inexplicably describing the skin-walkers of the Dine - *after* first mentioning the taboo of outsiders discussing skin-walkers at all! I say 'inexplicable' because there's literally no need to even mention skin-walkers - while the myths fall under the heading of 'morbid', I guess, they have nothing to do with funerary practices or rituals and are thus nowhere near the purview of this book. They seem to be included just for shock value, since nowhere else in the book has Prower tried to include things just because they're 'macabre'.

Honestly, that's a problem throughout; I'm not sure what the point of this book is supposed to be. Of all the topics to choose, death rituals don't seem like something you can just take quick snapshots of and call the job done - not when they're so intrinsic to so many cultures, and so incredibly important to so many people. In that way, the very premise of Morbid Magic feels disrespectful - I think this book would have needed to be a good bit longer, and gone into a lot more depth, to have covered the subject properly. The quick profiles of various death-related deities I can understand - mostly because I've seen similar things before - but the inclusion of magical rituals created and shared by individuals known to Prower at the closing of each chapter is just...odd? Out of place? It's like Morbid Magic can't decide what it wants to be; a guide to funerary practices around the world, or a book of modern necromancy/death magic - and because it tries to be both, it fails to satisfactorily accomplish either one.

This really isn't a book I'd recommend to fellow witches, although the writing is snappy and readable enough that I guess it could be entertaining for those in your life with vaguely morbid interests. I can see it being a good gift for a Goth friend, for example. But that's about the only use I can think of for it.

Thank you to NetGalley for a Kindle ARC of Morbid Magic.

This was a fantastic and extremely informative read; interesting, shocking and surprising, in all the right ways!

The author does a wonderful job of laying out the funeral rites of nearly every religion and culture in the world, no easy task.

His personal and professional experience in the mortuary industry gives him an unique perspective and an insightful and honest look into the death rites and rituals.

He is honest and forthcoming, and speaks openly about death, not as a taboo subject, because death is not taboo.

We all know the famous line by Benjamin Franklin, which in its entirety states, "“Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

Ben is right. And so is Mr. Prower.

In some way, we have all experienced death, through the deaths of loved ones or perhaps having a near death experience or illness.

Why are we so scared to talk about something as natural as death?

Everyone dies. The least we can do is prepare for it.

Mr. Prower's writes about the most fascinating rituals ancient cultures have when preparing and caring for their death.

He also gives the readers an interesting task at the end of each recap, asking us to take what we have learned from each culture and applying it to our personal lives, in a way, encouraging us to take a proactive approach to our future demise.

I've learned so many things, some of it gross and some of it hilarious.

Two words: erotic strippers.

Or my favorite: The 18 Courts of Hell.

How about sky burial? (It's not what you think.)

And how freaky is ritual strangulation? (Exactly what you think.)

Is it wrong to say reading a book about how cultures prepare and honor their dead was fun?

You know what? Who cares?

This was a great read! Everyone should read it.

Death is still a pretty taboo concept in the United States, so before you get freaked out and walk away, let me tell you that Morbid Magic is a fantastic helper to calm your fears. Written by Tomas Prower, the book goes out of it's way to be majorly inclusive of religions, cultures, and beliefs all across the world.  Want to know what the Egyptians thought about death? Ever curious about what a Shinto follower believes? Think Santa Muerte is all monster?  Read up, friends. Prower has an easy voice to follow and makes sure to reach out to folks who actually practice the beliefs, rather than just snag snippets off a Wikipedia page. His research is listed in the footnotes as well, so be prepared to find a whole bunch of books on other cultures on Abebooks.com after if you so choose. 

Morbid Magic is a bit of a misnomer of a title, because while morbid, all the side "magic" homework Prowers advises is really just practical applications of how to make life a little bit better before one shoves off this mortal coil.

Morbid Magic is available September 8, 2019.

Morbid Magic goes into detail about the death customs practiced all over the world and how to incorporate relatable aspects into your own life. I found it really interesting seeing how different cultures or religions treat death.

I've been looking for a book that would give me an overview of the death customs of many different cultures throughout history, and Morbid Magic fit the bill quite nicely. The author infuses macabre humor into the historical narrative from time to time, which made it even more entertaining to read.

The basic setup goes like this:

1. Name of the culture..
2. Examination of their death customs.
3. Examination of any death-related deities from that culture/time period..
4. Suggestions for how to implement at least one of their customs in the modern world (for example, some early cultures believed that the spirits of their dead would disappear if people forgot about them, so the author suggests honoring your dead by keeping them alive through stories and art).. .

There are several cultures included, which provides a good overview but doesn't get too far into the weeds with any time period/culture. The good thing about this is that it provides enough info to whet your appetite, and it also makes it easier to decide which cultures to dive more deeply into via other resources.

The book also references death magic, which is something that readers can use a "take it or leave it" approach to. Personally, I chose to leave it in terms of modern times but was fascinated by the magical beliefs of ancient cultures.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

Sorry for possible English mistakes!
This book is obviously different from many others becuse explores things which we sadly mostly put "under the carpet" and this theme is so serious. Anyway, once we have courage to open eyes to reality I am sure that we will much better handle and understand things about phenomenon which we call death. In the meantime one can use excellent advices and some magical rituals from this book to make his/her life more purposeful and more full of life (paradox) even though is theme so dark and "morbid".
This book presents general overview of many world traditions all connected with death and funeral customs, including shorter presentation of appropriate deities and myths. This part of the book for me is more like reference guide. Really, really you can barelly scratch the surface of great lores about death from many of these tradition. Even when author says that some tradition, like Judaic (for ex.), are not so rich in death lores this is not quite so. In Zohar we can find very profound lessons about dying, funerals and afterlife. So from this part of the book we get more reference guide. Many entries from these are very interesting and some of it were new for me (like about Skinwalkers from Navajo)
Now where this book is much better is when author gives practical advices (or "takeaways") and later when actual magical operations are shared from folks around the world. So many awsome lessons are presented here, many of them will make you to say in amazment "aha, now I can see".
Now, I don't like somehow anti-climatic first part of the conclusion at the end of the book though maybe I understand what is author's point of view there. Also some parts of the book tend to be one-sided, for ex, if we have impermanence in Buddhism, okay, but that's just one part of the story. I believe that those parts needs improvement to present bigger picture at least with one sentence.
Interesting book in general
Thanks to Llewellyn and NetGalley.